When you’re feeling anxious and jittery, try an alternative to seated meditation.

Q: When I’m freaking out about something, I find it impossible to meditate. I do have a history of panic attacks. Any suggestions?

We’re often susceptible to inadvertently engaging in what I like to call Strategic Meditation. That is, because we sometimes attain a degree of calmness when we practice, we begin to think that we should meditate in order to change how we feel. Such an approach is particularly ineffective and fraught with danger when we feel highly distressed, panicked, or depressed.

At such times, we’re not really meditating. If mindfulness meditation is the allowing or accepting of all that is arising in our awareness and holding it with kindness and patience and willingness, then using Strategic Meditation to calm down or stop a wave of sadness represents resistance to our feelings, not acceptance. We are adopting a stance of judging the feeling as bad or undesirable or problematic and trying earnestly to make it stop or go away. The problem is that trying to make yourself stop feeling or thinking about something only tends to make the problem worse. What you resist, persists.

The problem is that trying to make yourself stop feeling or thinking about something only tends to make the problem worse. What you resist, persists.

So then should you stop practicing mindfulness when you’re freaking out? No. But you may want to try a slightly different approach. Instead of sitting very still when your body is feeling agitated and fearful, consider walking mindfully or doing yoga with the intention of bringing awareness to your experience. That may just indulge your agitation enough to let you find a rhythm in the tumult. Let go of trying to make the anxiety go away and instead see if, for a time, you can simply befriend it and get to know it a bit. Perhaps by letting go of the resistance to freaking out, you will find that you actually take the wind out of its sails.

Letting go of needing anything to be any different in this moment is the key to moving mindfully through difficult situations. It isn’t easy to do, but when you’re practicing regularly, this stance of letting go becomes more accessible and easier to embrace. Regularly cultivating mindfulness when we aren’t freaking out or anxious will help us when we are freaked out. If our inner “volume” is already turned down, these difficult situations don’t provoke us in the same way.

How to Choose a Type of Mindfulness Meditation

Many beginner meditators, myself included, start out with a mindful breathing meditation: one breath in, one breath out, the mind wanders, you bring it back.

Armed with an app guiding me through this meditation, I practiced dutifully for several months—but eventually I fell off the wagon. It just stopped feeling right for me.

I didn’t know there were other types of meditation to try. That’s why a new study published in the journal Mindfulness is so encouraging: It compares four different types of meditation, and finds that they each have their own unique benefits. Mindful breathing isn’t the only place to start—and it’s not the end of meditation, either.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute recruited more than 200 adults in Germany who hadn’t meditated before to participate in a nine-month mindfulness training. It taught four types of meditation:

Body scan: A practice where you focus on each individual body part in turn, from head to toe.

Loving-Kindness meditation: A practice deigned to foster positive feelings of love and care, initially toward a close loved one and then extended to yourself, others, and eventually the whole world.

Observing-thought meditation: A practice that teaches you to notice as thoughts arise, label them—for instance, as positive or negative, focused on yourself or others—but avoid getting absorbed in them.

The program was split into three three-month modules, with breathing meditation and body scan taught together. Each module included a three-day retreat and two-hour weekly group sessions, plus five days a week of practice at home. Before and after every meditation session, participants filled out online questionnaires about their thoughts and feelings in the half hour before the meditation and during it—providing a snapshot of how the practice impacted their minds.

During every type of meditation, participants reported feeling more positive emotions, more energetic, more focused on the present, and less distracted by thoughts than they did before beginning—perhaps thanks to the attention training that’s common to all meditation. But that’s where the similarities ended.

During body scan, participants saw the biggest increases in how aware they were of their bodies (unsurprisingly) and the sharpest decline in the number of thoughts they were having, particularly negative thoughts and thoughts related to the past and future. Lovingkindness meditation led to the greatest boost in their feelings of warmth and positive thoughts about others. Meanwhile, the observing-thought meditation seemed to increase participants’ awareness of their thoughts the most.

Participants had been split into three groups, one of which learned only lovingkindness meditation (my personal favorite) for three months. But doing this practice without a foundation of more basic meditation didn’t seem to be problematic. In fact, though they had slightly more negative thoughts during lovingkindness meditation than the other groups (who had already learned mindful breathing and body scan), they saw an even bigger rise in their warm and positive feelings.

As the researchers point out, these findings offer insights to would-be meditators and mental health practitioners. If you’re tackling a specific issue—say, feeling disconnected from your body, in conflict with others, or plagued by rumination—then you can choose to try body scan, lovingkindness, or observing-thought meditation (respectively). Previous research also suggests that the observing-thought meditation has an advantage in reducing our judgmental attitude toward others.

“The type of meditation matters,” explain postdoctoral researcher Bethany Kok and professor Tania Singer. “Each practice appears to create a distinct mental environment, the long-term consequences of which are only beginning to be explored.” In fact, this study is part of a larger investigation called the ReSource Project, which is also examining how these different meditations affect brain structure, stress, and social behavior.

But if you’re looking for broad benefits, any of these types of meditation could help you cultivate positivity, energy, and focus. In that case, whichever meditation you’re likely to stick with is probably the best choice.

10 Mindful Attitudes That Decrease Anxiety

Mindfulness is, in short, the practice of being aware of what’s happening or what you’re experiencing in the present moment. It’s being here and now without judgment. This is a capacity that all human beings possess. Whenever you bring awareness to what you’re directly experiencing via your senses, or to your state of mind via your thoughts and emotions, you’re being mindful.

Although more research is needed to illuminate the mechanisms at work, it’s clear that mindfulness allows us to interrupt automatic, reflexive fight, flight, or freeze reactions—reactions that can lead to anxiety, fear, foreboding, and worry. By bringing mindfulness to our actual experience in the moment, we can increase the likelihood of exerting more conscious control over our behaviors and attitudes. In so doing we learn to work with our intention, wise effort, will, discipline, and capacity to be kind to ourselves. These are all resources that can be harnessed and cultivated.

With that in mind, there are certain attitudes that play an important role when working with anxiety mindfully. These attitudes are central to mindfulness, and fostering them will help you develop and sustain your practice. It’s similar to adding nutrients to the soil to cultivate a vibrant and healthy garden. By attending to the attitudes of mindfulness, you can support your practice and help it flourish. And just as a well-tended garden bears seeds and fruit, so too will practicing mindfulness help foster all of the attitudes of mindfulness. Keep in mind that you may find slightly different lists of the attitudes of mindfulness in other places. Below are the qualities that we believe all play an important role in working withanxiety mindfully.

1) Volition or intention is the foundation that supports all of the other attitudes. Your intention, will, or volition is what sets you on the mindful path to working within yourself to gradually transform your anxiety and find more ease, freedom, and peace. By bringing intention to working with anxiety, you’re developing persistence in seeing yourself as whole, capable, and resourceful.

2) Beginner’s mind is an aspect of mind that’s open to seeing from a fresh perspective. Meeting anxiety in this way, with curiosity, can play an extremely important role in transforming your experience. When you’re willing to adopt another point of view, new possibilities arise, and this can help you challenge habitual anxious thoughts and feelings.

3) Patience is a quality that supports perseverance and fortitude when feelings of anxiety are challenging. Patience offers a broader perspective, allowing you to see that moments of anxiousness will pass in time.

Mindfulness allows us to interrupt automatic, reflexive fight, flight, or freeze reactions—reactions that can lead to anxiety, fear, foreboding, and worry.

4) Acknowledgment is the quality of meeting your experience as it is. For example, rather than trying to accept or be at peace with anxiety, you meet it and your experience of it as they are. You can acknowledge that anxiety is present and how much you don’t like it, even as you apply patience and see anxiety as your current weather system, knowing it will pass.

5) Nonjudgment means experiencing the present moment without the filters of evaluation. In the midst of anxiety, it can be all too easy to experience a secondary layer of judgment on top of the already uncomfortable anxious feelings. Stepping out of a judgmental mind-setallows you to see more clearly. When you let go of evaluations, many sources of anxiety simply fade away. When you feel anxiety, adopting a nonjudgmental stance can reset your mind into a more balanced state.

6) Nonstriving is the quality of being willing to meet any experience as it is, without trying to change it. With nonstriving, you understand the importance of being with things as they are—being with your experience without clinging to or rejecting what’s there. (Note that nonstriving relates to your present-moment experiences during meditation and doesn’t in any way negate the value of setting a wise intention to grow, learn, and change your relationship to anxiety.) In the midst of strong anxiety, the first response is often to flee or get out of the situation. If you can pause and really be with your experience without exerting any force against it, you gain the opportunity to know your experience more clearly and choose your response. You can also become less fearful of the physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions that accompany anxiety.

7) Self-reliance is an important quality for developing inner confidence. With practice, you can learn to trust yourself and your ability to turn toward your anxiety or any other uncomfortable feeling. In turning toward these feelings, it’s important to bring other qualities of mindfulness to your experience, allowing the feelings, acknowledging them, and letting them be.

In time, you can learn to ride a wave of anxiety until it dissipates, just as a storm runs its course in the sky.

8) Letting be or allowing is similar to nonstriving. It’s a quality that gives space to whatever you encounter in the moment. For example, if anxiety comes up as you meditate, you could choose to work with it by allowing the feeling to be there. In time, you can learn to ride a wave of anxiety until it dissipates, just as a storm runs its course in the sky.

9) Self-compassion is a beautiful quality of meeting yourself with kindness. Yet, sadly, so many people are their own greatest adversaries. Most of us probably would never treat another person the way we sometimes treat ourselves. Self-compassion will naturally grow as you practice meditation. And bringing this quality into your experience of anxiety can be like being your own best friend in the midst of hardship, offering your hand in a moment when help is needed. As your self-compassion grows, you will come to know that you are there for yourself, and your anxiety will naturally decrease.

10) Balance and equanimity are related qualities that foster wisdom and provide a broader perspective so that you can see things more clearly. From this perspective, you understand that all things change and that your experience is so much wider and richer than temporary experiences of anxiety and other difficulties.

PRACTICE:

Take some time right now to slowly reread the descriptions of the attitudes of mindfulness. After reading each one, pause and reflect upon what it means to you, especially as you begin to work with anxiety. Take a moment to try on each attitude and see how it feels. As you do so, tune in to how you feel in your body, mind, and emotions. Finally, after trying on each attitude, briefly describe your experience, noting how it felt. For example, did it feel natural or easy to adopt a particular attitude, or was it difficult? If it was difficult, why might that be? Was the attitude unfamiliar, or did you feel yourself resisting it in some way?

Meditation has been a part of my life on a daily basis for nearly seven years.

I was drawn to meditation through a life or death situation. I had been a dual diagnosed addict since age 13 and was lying on death’s doorstep by age 23.

I knew that something had to change, and I was desperately seeking a solution to my problems. When I prayed for a solution, I received a mentor who suggested I start meditating every day.

I imagined people have been meditating since the beginning of time. Until I started doing it, I used to think it was reserved for the great sages, those who lived out East who did pilgrimages to hidden caves where they took respite for 20 years.

Those have done deserved to be honored, but it is also true that meditation is for everyone in all places and at all times. It is an endeavor all can and hopefully will take on in their lifetime, for it is our birth-right as multi-dimensional beings to have this practice to bring us back to balance in our minds, bodies, and hearts.

I started out slow with guided meditations for beginners one to five minutes a day. After a week of doing this, I was noticing a marked difference in the way I thought, talked, felt, and acted. I started to crave meditation like a woman roaming the desert in search of water. Meditation became the bedrock of my days. It was the first thing I did in the morning, and every day felt like it was guided by an inexplicable calming force.

This practice opened my heart to new possibilities and revived dreams once squandered by addiction. I started to explore the inner most depths of my being, and from that I listened to what my heart was beckoning me to do. When my heart begged to journey to India, I listened. When my heart asked that I take a leap of faith and start teaching yoga full time and abroad, I listened. When my heart asked that I create art through pen and paper, I listened. My life is much fuller today because of my meditation practice, and there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t do it. I am going on seven years of sobriety because of it.

During my travels in India, I had a great mentor named Krishna. He described meditation as, “the art of non-doing.” I like to think of meditation as a way of connecting to our ultimate truths in each moment. It is a ritual that gives us a greater view of our ego mind, reminding us that we are not our thoughts or our body but something much greater.

When we tune into the frequency that transcends the ego, suffering begins to wane in both the mind and the body. When we operate from the space of our Higher Self, we are better able to be in the moment and fully aware with nobility no matter what may be going on.

One thing I tell my students when they begin a meditation practice is to let go of trying to do it perfectly. There is no perfect. You can’t mess it up. Just begin. And you’ll see how meditation benefits your mind and body.

Close your eyes, and pay attention to the breath. Begin with one minute and allow the one minute to extend out from there over the next several days, months, and years. That is how I started, and it has grown over time. My daily practice today consists of mindfulness for 45-60 minutes or so a day. Not because I have something to prove, but because this is what I feel is right for me at this point in my life.

Things will change and we will change as time goes by, but if we can commit to staying disciplined to the practice, it will transform our whole lives. It is a foundation on which many a solid structure can be built upon. We do not meditate for gain but rather to disrobe all of the false-truths we have manufactured from our parents, teachers, media, internet, monkey mind, ad infinitum. Through this un-doing we are boundless, free, and liberated in our mind, body, and soul.

Here are some benefits I have experienced in my own journey through this ancient practice:

1. Improved mental clarity: Before I started meditation, my short term memory was fading, and I felt like I was in a general malaise most of the day. After practicing daily for just one short month, I noticed that my mental acuity was much stronger and my memory improved.

2. Increase in optimism/Decrease in depression: I have to admit, I sought out meditation to help improve my anxiety and depression. Along with yoga and moderate exercise, mindfulness meditation has become a holistic soother. Within a few months of regular practice, my anxiety was drastically reduced and my mild depression had ceased. I started to view the world with rose colored glasses, and I was more likely see the positive side of all situations.

3. Improved diet: Through mindfulness meditation, I started to become aware of how my body felt after I ate. I noticed that certain drinks and foods made me feel uplifted, light, and energized while others made me feel sluggish, bloated, and foggy. I lost my taste for poultry and all red meat and began to crave a whole foods diet. I felt renewed by food that nourished my mind and body.

4. Stronger immune system: It is not new news that relaxing and reducing stress aids in restoration in the physical body. The mind and body are directly related. I started to notice when my body was sending me signals to slow down or speed up. Listening to the ebbs and flows of my body has created a beautiful synergy between the two, and I have gone from getting sick several times a season to rarely getting sick at all.

5. Improved breathing: One of the first ways I started a practice was focusing on the sensations of the breath on the insides of my nostrils along with a four count technique. Inhaling to a count of four, holding the breath, exhaling to a count of four, holding the breath. My lungs began to increase in their capacity to breathe deeper, fuller breaths, and this served as a tool to slow down my mind and heart rate when I would get stressed by life. If I were, say, stuck in rush hour traffic and noticed my breath was becoming shallow, I would slow the breath down and return to a more balanced rhythm of breathing.

6. Increased compassion: When I am still enough, I remember that I am loved. All beings are loved, and we need to give and receive this love on a daily basis. Through meditation I am able to see the similarities in myself and others. There is a marked difference in how I view another because rather than seeing this other as a separate being, I can sense that they are one with me.

7. Increased spiritual awareness: When I close my eyes and go within, all of a sudden I can feel the Creator. Meditation has taken me from a place of thinking that spirituality was something outside of myself to bringing it to something that was tangible and within. I not only could send this within me, but could now see and feel it within others.

8. Heightened psychic awareness: We are all born with some sort of sixth sense. I believe that we can learn how to cultivate these senses through mindfulness practice. I was always a sensitive human being before my daily sessions, but after I started, I realized just what these abilities were for. This developed and over time and continues to develop in my life. It is a unique experience for everyone that I talk to who share similar experiences. This is part of the process of getting to know one’s self. Why not maximize our potential? Let’s really dive into what we are capable of!

9. Going with the flow: I was a planner before meditation. Very type A. I couldn’t stand not knowing what was ahead, and I needed to dictate every detail down to the last second. Anything not planned would send me into a panic. Meditation calls for us to let go on a very deep level. It calls for us to be here now, as Ram Dass so beautifully stated.

After two years of meditation, I started to live very differently. I stopped planning. Sure, I had goals, but I allowed them to be like the branches in the breeze. I held space for my days to be led from a deeper space of wisdom cultivated by my meditation practice. I allowed my whole being to be danced by this intrinsic wisdom. Suddenly, I found myself living in different countries, finding a career that I absolutely loved and love even more to this day, meeting beautiful beings all over the globe, and evolving beyond what I even thought was possible on a personal level.

10. Synchronicity awareness: The world becomes alive through meditation. We begin to notice when the Universe is trying to get our attention through repetition. Whether it be something that occurs multiple times within a day that grabs our attention or is said through 5 different people on our way to work or a time on the clock that is echoed through street signs only moments later. Some say that increased synchronicity means that we are getting confirmation that we are on the right path.

Numerous studies have indicated the many physiological benefits of meditation, and the latest one comes from Harvard University.

An eight week study conducted by Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) determined that meditation literally rebuilds the brains grey matter in just eight weeks. It’s the very first study to document that meditation produces changes over time in the brain’s grey matter. (1)

“Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day. This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing.” – (1) Sara Lazar of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program and a Harvard Medical School Instructor in Psychology

The Study

The study involved taking magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the brain’s of 16 study participants two weeks prior to participating in the study. MRI images of the participants were also taken after the study was completed.

“The analysis of MR images, which focused on areas where meditation-associated differences were seen in earlier studies, found increased grey-matter density in the hippocampus, known to be important for learning and memory, and in structures associated with self-awareness, compassion and introspection.” (1)

For the study, participants engaged in meditation practices every day for approximately 30 minutes. These practices included focusing on audio recordings for guided meditation, non-judgmental awareness of sensations, feelings and state of mind.

“It is fascinating to see the brain’s plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life. Other studies in different patient populations have shown that meditation can make significant improvements in a variety of symptoms, and we are now investigating the underlying mechanisms in the brain that facilitate this change.” – (1)Britta Holzel, first author of the paper and a research fellow at MGH and Giessen University in Germany

The Gut

Researchers from Harvard have also released another study showing that meditation can have a significant impact on clinical symptoms of gastrointestinal disorders, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The study showed that elicitation of the relaxation response(a physical state of deep rest that changes the physical and emotional responses to stress) is a very big help.

The study comes out of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). This is the very first study where the use of the “relaxation response” was examined in these disorders, and the first to investigate the genomic effects of the relaxation response in individuals with any disorder. The report was published in the journal PLOS-ONE. (source)

Given the two studies cited above, and all of the other documented health benefits of meditation, this should open the door for more studies to examine the benefits of meditation for a wide range of diseases.

“Our results suggest exciting possibilities for further developing and implementing this treatment in a wider group of patients with gastrointestinal illness. Several studies have found that stress management techniques and other psychological interventions can help patients with IBS, at least in the short term; and while the evidence for IBD is less apparent, some studies have suggested potential benefits. What is novel about our study is demonstration of the impact of a mind/body intervention on the genes controlling inflammatory factors that are known to play a major role in IBD and possibly in IBS.” – Brandon Kuo of the gastrointestinal unit in the MGH Department of Medicine, co-lead author of the report. (source)

For those of you who are unaware, IBS and IBD are chronic conditions that produce similar symptoms which include; abdominal pain, and changes in bowel function, like diarrhea. IBD also includes ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, which leads one to suffer from severe inflammation in all or part of the gastrointestinal tract. Science has shown us that stress intensifies these symptoms, which is why this study regarding meditation and these diseases holds a great deal of importance.

The relaxation response has been subject to several studies that clearly show that its regular practice (induced by meditation) directly affects physiologic factors such as oxygen consumption, heart rate, blood pressure and again, stress and anxiety. It was first described over 40 years ago by Herbert Benson, director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute and co-author of the paper presented in this article.

The study had 48 adult participants, with 19 of them being diagnosed with IBS and 29 with IBD. There was weekly relaxation response training, as well as in their home for 15 t0 20 mintues each day.

The study enrolled 48 adult participants — 19 of whom had been diagnosed with IBS and 29 with IBD — who participated in a nine-week group program focused on stress reduction, cognitive skills, and health-enhancing behaviors. Each of the weekly sessions included relaxation response training, and participants were asked to practice relaxation response elicitation at home for 15 to 20 minutes each day. Along with aspects featured in other group programs offered at the Benson-Henry Institute, this program included a session specifically focused on gastrointestinal health.

“Both in patients with IBS and those with IBD, participation in the mind/body program appeared to have significantly improved disease-related symptoms, anxiety, and overall quality of life, not only at the end of the study period but also three weeks later. While there were no significant changes in inflammatory markers for either group of participants, changes in expression were observed in almost 200 genes among participants with IBS and more than 1,000 genes in those with IBD. Many of the genes with altered expression are known to contribute to pathways involved with stress response and inflammation.” (source)

How To Meditate

A common misconception about meditation is that you have to sit a certain way or do something in particular to achieve the various benefits that it can provide. All you have to do is place yourself in a position that is most comfortable to you. It could be sitting cross legged, lying down in a bed, sitting on a couch etc, it’s your choice.

Another common misconception about meditation is that you have to “try” to empty your mind. One important factor I enjoyed reading from the study mentioned above is that participants were engaged in “non-judgmental awareness of sensations, feelings and state of mind.” When meditating, you shouldn’t try to “empty” your mind. Instead, try to let your thoughts, feelings and whatever emotions you are feeling at the time flow. Don’t judge them, just let them come and go and be at peace with it.

I also believe that meditation is a state of being/mind more than anything else. I feel that one does not have to sit down for half an hour and “meditate” so to speak in order to reap the benefits of it, or to be engaged in the practice itself. One can be engaged in meditation while they are on a walk, for example, or the time they have right before they sleep. Throughout the day, one can resist judging their thoughts, letting them flow until they are no more, or just be in a constant state of peace and self awareness. Contrary to popular belief, there is more than one way to meditate.

“You will have to understand one of the most fundamental things about meditation: that no technique leads to meditation. The old so-called techniques and the new scientific biofeedback techniques are the same as far as meditation is concerned. Meditation is not a byproduct of any technique. Meditation happens beyond mind. No technique can go beyond mind.” – Osho

For more articles from Collective Evolution on meditation you can click HERE.

Overwhelmed with shame, I felt my throat constrict and my eyes well. In the last two weeks, I’d moved across the continent, I’d broken up with my boyfriend and I’d been shifted into a unfamiliar role at work (for which I hadn’t initially been hired). I knew no one in the city, had my first taste of an ‘authentic’ East Coast winter and was living with a 25-year-old from Craigslist who hosted parties at our flat every other night. On top of everything, the company that employed me was in the midst of a crisis and morale was rockbottom.

Wounded, angry and defeated, my mind flashed back to the cushy college counseling job I’d left a few weeks earlier. I’d had a long waiting list of clients. An office with my name on the door. A manager by whom I’d felt empowered and supported.

Perhaps he’d been right. Perhaps I wasn’t adjusting that well (although coming from the world of mental health and given the circumstances, I thought I was doing pretty frickin’ awesome). But what I needed in that moment was for my manager to care . To attempt to understand my experience — to lay a foundation of mutual respect, trust, transparency and open communication.

I don’t remember how I responded to my boss’s comment about not adjusting, but I do remember that conversation set the tone for a resentful, fear-based, mutually frustrating communication style between the two of us.

What my manager lacked was emotional intelligence, the ability to identify, understand and respond constructively to emotional experience (also known as LIFE). Now, that’s not to say I was the picture of agreeableness and cooperation in our relationship. However, because leaders shape workplace culture, it’s imperative that these leaders bear emotional intelligence. (I’m lookin’ at you, Donald.) And not just because it’ll lead to greater trust, respect and communication from your team: Emotional intelligence actually predicts success.

I’m not convinced. How can emotional intelligence make me better?

Emotional intelligence increases:

Assertiveness

Ability to respond constructivey rather than reacting impulsively

Ability to take feedback without getting defensive

Ability to let go of control and not micromanage

Ability to tolerate stress

Ability to deal with change

Trust from employees

Respect from employees

A culture of transparency and communication

Ability to read people

Ability to manage emotions/not be swept away or swayed by them

Ability to recognize triggers and react to them in a healthier way

Meaningful connection to work

Authentic, communicative relationships within and outside of the workplace

I’d be happy to! Physiologically, emotional intelligence involves activation of the logical part of our brain (the prefrontal cortex) in response to the activation of the emotional part of our brain (the limbic system). Experientially, emotional intelligence can be summed up as the ability to recognize emotional experiences in ourselves and others and to respond intentionally rather than react automatically. Yes, friends, counterintuitive as it might seem, paying attention (mindfully) to our feelings allows us to have more control over them!

Let’s break it down further. Here are five specific behaviors emotional intelligence includes:

Mindfulness

Emotional awareness

Non-reactivity

Compassion for self and other

Empathy

1. Mindfulness

No doubt you’ve heard this term before. Mindfulness is the act of intentionally paying attention to the current moment with compassion and acceptance, and without judgment. You can practice mindfulness toward your thoughts, feelings, breath, and senses. Try this: Close your eyes and focus on your breath for a few minutes and just notice the thoughts, feelings and sensations that come up. Don’t judge them (or yourself), don’t try to push them away and don’t try to hold onto them. Just accept and welcome them as they come and go.

2. Emotional Awareness

Although it’s (slowly) changing, we still live in a culture that tells us to suppress or numb our feelings . Yet an important facet of emotional intelligence is being able to recognize, identify and express (if conditions allow) what we’re feeling. That means we know the difference between — and have words for —sadness and loneliness, hurt and betrayal, grief and envy and so on. Developing emotional awareness is twofold: first is becoming more in touch with our bodily emotional experience — for example, recognizing what the pit in your stomach or lump in your throat or hollowness in your chest is telling you; second is developing your emotional vocabulary, meaning you learn more words than “happy” and “sad” (consider saving this list) and practice connecting the words you learn to the sensations you experience in your body.

3. Non-Reactivity

Non-reactivity is another essential manifestation of emotional intelligence. This is also achieved through mindfulness, but it deserves its own explanation. You see, mindfully noticing without reacting develops our “emotional tolerance muscles” — the muscles that let us feel angry but not say something (or send an email saying something) we later regret; or that make us feel anxious before a presentation but not say we’re sick and bail; or feel sad after getting rejected but not eat the (entire) gallon of ice cream in our freezer. By practicing “non-reactivity” (or “equanimity”), we actually slow down our response time (in the best way) so we get to choose how we want to react, rather than letting our emotions choose for us.

4. Compassion For Self and Others

For some of us, compassion comes more easily. For others — especially those of us who were raised in neglectful or abusive environments — feeling compassion is a lot more challenging. However, like emotional intelligence, we have the capacity to develop compassion through practice. Self-compassion is a particularly important component of emotional intelligence, as we need it to sit with those uncomfortable feelings mentioned in the last point. Think about how distressful it is to be feeling anxious and have someone say “STOP IT! STOP FEELING ANXIOUS RIGHT NOW!” vs. “Hey, it’s OK that you’re feeling anxious. It’s totally normal to feel that way before presenting. Anxiety is just trying to help you prepare.” Well, that someone is us, and we get to determine if we’re critical and punishing or supportive and encouraging.

5. Empathy

Wouldn’t ya know? Empathy can also be learned! Hoorah! Empathy is being able to put yourself in the shoes of another and imagine what they might be feeling. So if we go back to the situation with my manager, I would have felt supported if he’d said something like, “I totally get you’re feeling overwhelmed right now — there’s been a lot of transition for you in a short period of time. How can we work together to set you up for success given your current situation?”

If you’ve spent years (or decades) living by the unhelpful assumption that strong leadership means turning off feelings, you might be lacking in the emotional intelligence department. Fortunately, though, it’s something you can develop through practice. Your best classrooms and laboratories? Yoga, meditation, psychotherapy, executive coaching, journaling, reflecting, and engaging in vulnerable conversations with loved ones.

—————–

Whether you occupy a leadership role or not, I urge you to put some energy toward developing or increasing emotional intelligence. You’ll be happier, your relationships will improve, your company will experience more success, and the world will be a better place as a result.

If you have been struggling to lose weight, it might be in your mind as much as it is in your waistline. According to meditation coach Lynne Goldberg, excessive eating often has nothing to do with hunger — it’s entirely mental.

“Perhaps we are triggered unconsciously by the smell of delicious cinnamon buns while we walk through the mall,” said Lynne. “Often, we eat when we are stressed, or sad.” Boredom and other emotional factors can be and often are culprits when it comes to the urge to eat.

So you’re thinking, “Sure, I’m eating for reasons beyond hunger, but how do I actually stop it??” As you may have guessed, it starts with your brain, and gaining control over your mind and emotions comes from mindfulness and meditation.

“Mindfulness helps us to be truly present with our thoughts, feelings, and emotions as we eat,” said Lynne. Start practicing meditation at the beginning of the day to clear your thoughts; you can download a meditation app if you need help getting started.

Additionally, you can start a mindful eating practice, which includes slower chewing and a bit of meditation around mealtime. This can increase satiety and cut down on cravings.

Making these small changes can lead to other healthier, better changes. “We also learn to pay attention to our body’s cues as well,” said Lynne. You’ll pay more attention to the sensations in your body once you become more connected via meditation and mindfulness, “so rather than automatically going for a second helping, we can learn to take an extra second to notice our sense of fullness or other reasons we may be eating that aren’t simply hunger.”

Another benefit of meditation? It relieves stress, which reduces cortisol, the stress hormone that causes our body to store fat, specifically in our belly (awesome, right?). By eradicating stress from your life through mindfulness, you can let go of the hormones that are causing road blocks in your weight loss. Let go of stress, let go of pounds.

Take a breath with Apple — literally. The tech giant announced this week that it will include a new mindfulness app called Breathe in its forthcoming iteration of the Apple Watch.

Tech Insider reported that the app is designed to guide users through simple deep breathing exercises that calm and manage stress. It uses animations and light wrist tapping to communicate breathing patterns, and it can be set up to remind watch wearers when it’s time to do the exercises throughout the day, according to PSFK. Notifications can also be set up to remind users to take standing breaks and to follow a personalized sleep schedule.

“If you already do deep breathing, we think this is going to be a great way for you to fit it into your day more often,” Jay Blahnik, director of fitness for health technologies at Apple, said during the WWDC conference on Monday. “And for those of you that don’t, we think this is going to be a great way to get started and just one more simple way that it can help you live a better day.”

Tim Cook speaks at an Apple event at the Worldwide Developer’s Conference on June 13, 2016 in San Francisco, California.Andrew Burton/Getty Images

While deep breathing goes by many names — diaphragmatic breathing, abdominal or belly breathing — its purpose is the same: to open up the lungs and expand the stomach as you fill with air in order to relieve tension and stress. This form of breathing can also slow heartbeat and stabilize blood pressure, according to Harvard Health. It can also soothe severe breathing conditions like emphysema.

Since it’s a relaxation technique, yoga and meditation classes have also guided people through similar exercises. Deep breathing gives people a focal point and helps them let go of distracting thoughts and emotions. Yoga instructor Mary Bruce told LiveStrong that “focusing on your deep, rhythmic breath helps turn your mind inward and activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes relaxation.”

A 2008 government-funded survey revealed that an estimated 38 percent of adults and 17 percent of children were using some kind of complementary or alternative therapy. Nearly 18 percent of adults used natural products such as fish oil and flaxseed, followed by 12.7 percent of respondents who used deep breathing exercises. Other popular treatments and activities included meditation, chiropractic manipulation, massage, and yoga. A separate study published in 2013 found that the relaxation that comes from doing these types of therapies can positively affect the genes responsible for our immune function, energy, and insulin secretion.

“People have been engaging in these practices for thousands of years, and our finding of this unity of function on a basic-science, genomic level gives greater credibility to what some have called ‘new age medicine,’” said the study’s lead author Dr. Towia Libermann of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

So even if Apple is not the first to introduce consumers to this idea — an app developer has alleged the company stole his concept, spelling, and functionality — there’s already longstanding evidence that taking a moment for yourself, whether it’s a really deep breath or a walk around the office, can be beneficial to health.

]]>https://blog.nirvanamind.net/2016/06/17/ibreathe/feed/0apple-watchnirvanamindblogApple Watch11 Habits of Mindful Peoplehttps://blog.nirvanamind.net/2016/05/30/11-habits-of-mindful-people/
https://blog.nirvanamind.net/2016/05/30/11-habits-of-mindful-people/#respondMon, 30 May 2016 01:00:46 +0000http://blog.nirvanamind.net/?p=877]]>Originally posted as “11 Habits of Mindful People That Everyone Should Consider Trying” at Bustle

Most of us go through our days without taking many moments to pause and reflect on what we’re doing. Although we’re just trying to keep up with the hectic busyness of our lives, it’s important to find ways to take time and be mindful. Stopping to pay attention to the moment can help give us not only mental clarity, but even improve our overall health.

“Becoming ‘mindful’ means being more ‘purposefully aware’ of what you’re experiencing from moment to moment, without judging that experience,” says Patricia Karpas, host of Untangle, a meditation podcast by Gaiam in an email to Bustle. “It takes a lot more practice than one might think!”

It’s easy for us to react automatically to experiences around us, such as getting impatient in the supermarket line or honking angrily in a traffic jam. But we can use mindfulness to change how we react in experiences and become our best selves. “Mindfulness helps us to recognize or notice the feelings that we’re experiencing, to pause and then to respond in a more thoughtful way,” says Karpas.

If you want to start living more in the present and improve both your physical and mental health, consider taking on these 11 daily habits of mindful people.

1. They Meditate

When we think of mindfulness, we automatically think meditation, and for good reason. Meditation is the staple of mindfulness. “Meditation practice helps us to simply sit and be with what ever arises in our busy minds,” says Karpas. A regular meditation practice can help reduce anxiety, depression, and stress, according to a study from Johns Hopkins University. It can also improve your physical health, as meditation has been shown to boost the immune system and lower blood pressure, according to research from the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science.

2. They Express Their Gratitude

“Being grateful is a way to always see the bigger picture,” says Karpas. “Count the many things you are grateful for, even when things are not going your way. You’ll find that this practice helps you to be more mindful of all the positive things that are in your life, even when you’re at your all time low.” Science agrees: People who regularly write down what they are grateful for are more optimistic, feel better about their lives, and even have less visits to the physician, according to Harvard Health.

3. They Listen To Their Body

Part of being mindful includes being in tune with your personal needs, which means not pushing yourself over the edge. “Sometimes we’re not up to being constantly on the go,” says Dr. Roshawnna Novellus, also known as The Wealthy Yogi, to Bustle over email. “Mindfulness includes listening to your body and taking breaks when necessary.”

4. They Prioritize Rest

That being said, rest is not a sign of the weak. “It’s important for you to also prioritize time for rest and renewal,” says Novellus. “Although it may cause anxiety to close the laptop or not check your phone for a day, it’s important to disconnect and calendar in time just for yourself.”

5. They Smile

Sometimes we hurry so quickly through our day, we don’t take the time to smile at others — hello resting bitch face anyone? “The more you smile at people the more positive energy comes back to you,” says mindfulness coach Kathy Walsh over email. “It’s simple, easy and you’ll be surprised by how effective it is.” In fact, studies show that smiling at others helps you release the feel-good neurotransmitters dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin, and it helps other people view you as more attractive, reliable, relaxed and sincere.

6. They Spend Time In Nature

“Doesn’t matter where you are, in city or suburb,” says Walsh. “Take a moment to connect with nature. Appreciate the change in seasons.”

7. They Cultivate Their Space

“Whether it’s cleaning your home, desk, body, or mind, look for ways to reduce unnecessary clutter,” says Jen Kluczkowski, the CEO/co-founder of Mindfresh, over email. Physical clutter can have a negative effect on your ability to focus, according to a study from Princeton University, so having a clean and organized space will help you get your thoughts together.

8. They Simply Breathe

“Spend a few minutes everyday doing ‘Square Breathing,'” says Karpas. “This is a simple breath practice that you can do anytime, anywhere. Inhale for four counts. Hold for four counts. Exhale for four counts. Hold for four counts. This helps to regulate the nervous system, which is always good for stress and impulsive reactions.”

9. They Separate Their Thoughts & Emotions

“When you are feeling a strong emotion, just notice it,” says Karpas. “Most of us ‘become’ the emotion and get attached to it and even ruminate in it. If you can notice the feeling and be curious about it instead of becoming it, you’ll see the situation differently.”

10. They Enjoy Their Meals

“Being present with your meal helps us enjoy our eating experiences and listen to our body’s internal signals that guide our eating,” says Alexis Conason, Psy.D. over email. Mindful eating — which includes savoring your food with all your senses, pausing between bites, and avoiding distractions — has been shown to help people have better eating habits and have a healthier relationship with food, according to Harvard Health.

11. They Do Something Creative

Doing something creative and being mindful go hand in hand. Forms of art such as music, writing, and visual arts have been shown to help decrease stress and anxiety, according to multiple studies. On the flip side, a study from Frontiers in Cognition found that meditation can make you more creative.

Taking a moment each day to tune in with your thoughts and actions can have powerful effects.

Meditation and Mindfulness are used to control negative thinking and reduce stress. Studies show that both appear to produce positive structural changes in the brain.

(Newswire.net — May 24, 2016) — We all want to find a way to increase our power to control negative thinking, reduce stress and benefit from the host of physical and mental benefits which meditation and mindfulness appear to offer. Studies have shown that both practices appear to produce real positive structural changes in the brain. But where does meditation end and mindfulness begin? Is there really a difference between the two? The general confusion between the two is not helped by the fact that wherever you look, you will find different explanations of each. There is also considerable overlap. Here are some thoughts which might help clarify, and hopefully won’t add to the confusion!

Meditation

Meditation can help develop feelings of positivity and inner peace, as well as acceptance of the world around us, of ourselves and of others.

The practice of meditation has been around for thousands of years. It has its origins largely in Eastern religious practices and is associated with Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. In this context the person meditating is trying to achieve a heightened state of spiritual awareness. You can access a wide variety of guided spiritual meditations – try this guided meditation link, for free meditations, aimed at helping those seeking the freedom to transcend the distractions of the physical world.

In a wider context, the term meditation is often used simply to describe the practice of setting aside time to develop your mind’s ability to focus and achieve clarity of thought. Not all meditation has a spiritual element.

You do not necessarily have to sit in a cross-legged position to meditate. For a beginner it does however help to sit in an upright position, one in which you will stay awake. It’s a good idea to sit on a soft mat or cushion to prevent physical discomfort from distracting you. You do not need to burn candles or chant in order to meditate. Meditation often involves the practitioner focusing on one particular thing such as the breath or repetition of a mantra. Some meditative practices involve no focus on any particular thing but allow the mind to freely move from one thought to the next.

Meditation can last a matter of seconds. Anybody who has ever deliberately focused on their breathing to help control emotions or pain has practiced the art of meditation.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness, as most people know it, is a rather more modern construct, although like meditation, it also has its origins in ancient Eastern religious practices, particularly the Buddhist practice of Vipassana.

Mindfulness can be defined as a way of living, so that the practitioner is fully aware of what they are experiencing in any precise moment. The ability to live more mindfully can be developed by practicing meditation.

One person who has achieved a great deal in bringing the practice of mindfulness into the mainstream is Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic and Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. As a result of his work and of the many clinical studies showing the positive health benefits which mindfulness can bring, mindfulness is now practiced around the world in schools, prisons, hospitals and in the workplace and is being used not just to reduce stress but also to combat depression, eating disorders and substance abuse.

Once you have become a regular practitioner of mindful meditation, you will find that you start to develop the ability to become more focused on whatever you are doing, whether its eating a piece of fruit, chairing a work meeting or simply walking to the shops.

Similarities and Differences

To conclude, meditation is the practice of a discipline which can help develop a greater sense of awareness, acceptance and compassion. Regular practice of meditation helps to train your mind to detach from distractions and to focus.

Mindfulness is the ability to live fully in each moment-focusing fully on what the person is experiencing at any moment in time and accepting the way things are. The ability to live more mindfully will be developed by practicing meditation.